Business File Tote… it helps if you read the pattern!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Business File Tote pattern (find it here):

This is a great pattern.  With perfectly fine instructions.  If you read them :)

I started this handy tote on a Sunday afternoon.  With a deadline of having it done that evening, so Wesley could take it with him to his trunk show at the Black Hills Stock Show.

The steps are simple.  Make a handy side pocket:

 

Create an outer bag (the bag is boxy, but when I folded it flat for the photo, the corners look angled.  In “real life”, they are not angled, just square:

Create a nearly identical liner, with the SAME dimensions, except the BOTTOM seam is sewn at 1/4” rather than 1/2”.  This is where I didn’t read the instructions.  I sewed the side seams and the bottoms seams at 1/2” for the outer bag, and at 1/4” for the liner.

Assemble the bag, using a layer of canvas for interfacing.  I used a sturdy Pellon  that Wesley ordered for the floor mats. 

Oops.  My liner was 1/2” larger in all dimensions than my bag, and the Pellon was so sturdy that I could not ease in anything.  As a result, the faux binding that wraps around the upper edge was all lumpy, because the liner was just that much bigger than the outer bag.  The liner was supposed to be 1/2”  longer than the bag but the same width.

Crap.  Other bad words.

It was 10:30 pm. My bag was nearly done. Unfortunately, it looked like it had been sewn by a Third Grader.

Enter my husband with a seam ripper.  He ripped out the necessary seams, and by then it was nearly midnight.

We went to bed. 

Rose finished the bag, according to pattern instructions.  It is beautiful!

And useful.

 

Notice the matching file folders?  I used fun contemporary fabric from Michael Miller.  Find them here.  

 

The file folders sit in this little plastic frame, available at office stores or online.  Here’s the Amazon link.

Our employees made me feel much better.  They said I did a very nice job picking out the fabric, and matching the prints to my file folders!

I share this story with you, not to discourage you from making this project.  Just to state the obvious… it is very helpful to read the pattern instructions.

Happy Quilting!